Prior art focuses on a wide range of surface coatings to repel ice, dirt/dust, and fluid droplets from forming and/or staying on a window (i.e., a transparent, at least to the light spectrum window of the imaging sensor). In numerous instances the surface coatings are insufficient to provide visual clarity, especially when the imaging element is ever decreasing in size (as the substance remaining on the window is of relatively significant size to the imaging element creating image blurriness).
Another embodiment of the prior art focuses on a wide range of active cleaning measures including wiper blades, resistive heating elements, surface acoustic waves, etc. In numerous instances the physical size of the window of the imaging sensor is too large to practically, cost-effectively and energy consumption to thoroughly and actively clean the window area over the imaging sensor.
Yet another prior art is ever diminishing camera sizes (both in terms of radius of optical elements in addition to depth of system) though fixed imaging angles between the camera and the host system (inclusive of display a.k.a. graphical display unit) limiting the functionality and features within the host system.